Blaise and the vet trip

I took little Blaise to the vet last week for his immunizations and a check up. At about 4 p.m., he had his shot and we went merrily home. He enjoyed the trip, loved the vet, loved everybody.

At about 7:30 p.m. Blaise began getting friskier than usual, barking at the big dogs, flinging himself around, so much I grabbed him up and tried to quiet him. It was then I saw his little face, all swollen. His bright beady eyes were just slits, and instead of looking like a Jack Russell puppy, he looked more like a bull terrier.

Little Blaise’s face before shot.

What he looked like with his reaction. Bull terrier puppies are adorable, but JR puppies should not look like them.

He was not happy and kept whining and rubbing his face.

A call to the after-hours vet later, I reviewed my options.

The swelling was most likely an allergic reaction to the distemper immunization, the vet on call said. I was to give little Blaise benadryl comparable to his size if I had it, but if he seemed to get worse, have trouble breathing, etc. I was to take him to the Emergency Vet.

I had no benadryl and the dogs and I were alone, so I decided to watch and wait for a bit before making a move. His swelling peaked and then didn’t seem to get any worse. He drank water and ate a cookie.

So we all sat on the bed, and I made a cold compress and applied it to his little head, as much as he would let me.

About 1 a.m. or so, he slept and so did I. The swelling was gone in the morning when the vet called.

She concurred with the night vet and said I should keep adult benadryl at the house at all times. She said puppies who had reactions to immunizations were likely to react badly to such things as insect bites, etc. and it was good to have the tablets, of which he was to get 1/4 dosage, available.

And, he was to have only one shot at a time from now on, rather than a combined dosage.

I was so relieved he was back to his spicy self, playing and leaping around, opening his mouth and showing me all his teeth, which we call doing the “alligator mouth.”

I also asked the vet if Blaise could go out in society to the big box pet stores or, what I really wanted to do, go see Santa Claus at the mall.

She advised me that little puppies of Blaise’s age, not thoroughly vaccinated, should not be mixing with other dogs, who might not be properly vaccinated and might pass an illness to him.

So, unless Santa visits the house, no cute Christmas photo, unless I can convince CG to dress up as St. Nick.

Little Blaise already has my heart hostage. I felt so sorry for him, so happy and full of life just hours before, and then bewildered and in pain.

And on the feedling front, I decided to do a version of what poster Annie advised in a comment to my Food Envy blog

Everybody gets a separate bowl of food commiserate with their age, and with a bit of canned dog food and warm water mixed in. The bigs get this morning and night and Blaise gets it three times a day.

It isn’t as hard as I thought, and the bigs eat their food eagerly.

Sometimes, don’t tell anyone, I hand-feed Blaise because, like a little kid, everything around him is so fascinating he finds it hard to concentrate on eating.

I have been heard telling him, “Eat, eat, you’ll be hungry later.”

That is really sad.

And lastly, another photo, showing just how quickly Little Blaise is growing. His nose is elongating, as is his body and he is much more sure of himself.

Blaise and May-May playing in the yard. He is much more self-assured now.

Please bring him by Puppy Playschool- the free puppy class at Pup scouts. He’ll have a blast! We have off leash playtime, manners practice and some pre-training games. Right now we have another Jack Russel who comes. http://www.pup-scouts.com

In actual fact, hand feeding a young dog, particularly boy dogs (who tend to be a bit more unruly than girls)…this reinforces the bond between you and your furbaby…it implants in his mind that you are the giver of all good things…so when you are training him, there is the fact that he does not eat unless you give it to him…leaving no doubt you are top dog. So now that you know, you can hand feed your furboy publically and simply say it is a “training technique”!